


Significance Forgotten

by emothy



Category: Liveship Trilogy - Hobb
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-09-30
Updated: 2006-09-30
Packaged: 2017-10-04 00:47:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emothy/pseuds/emothy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set after the events of the last book (Ship of Destiny) so beware SPOILERS. Amber's significance is forgotten by all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Significance Forgotten

It began with Amber. Now that everything was said and done, and Amber had disappeared, Althea and Brashen were left with a fortune beyond comparison, and Paragon and the other liveships were whole again, it was hard to think back to the beginning. It seemed another world ago. Althea herself would have her brief moments of wondering, but Amber kept in solid contact, regaling without actually explaining in much depth at all, where she was and what she was doing. She was now in cahoots with some strange Lord Golden in the Six Duchies.

"Why anyone should wish to go there willingly is a mystery to me." Althea spoke aloud, letter in one hand, the other splayed out across her belly, although there wasn't much to feel there yet. Paragon had known before she that a child grew inside of her.

"Why don't we sail on up there and find out?" Paragon suggested wickedly. He knew the wide opinion of the Six Duchies according to Bingtown folk. Though he had sailed many oceans, Igrot had not believed he could find anything satisfactory in the Duchies, either. But the dragons inside of him, when they could be persuaded to think upon such a small, insignificant stretch of land and wonder on the lives of its people, did not seem to believe they were any more barbarian than the people of Bingtown, in their own way.

"No thank you, Paragon, I'd rather not." Althea said, shaking her head emphatically. "We have enough to oversee and to do in our waters. Besides, don't you think it might look rather as though we didn't trust in Amber to invest her share of our fortune wisely?"

Paragon nodded, but he suspected rather that it had been a gamble to trust Amber with anything and everything. Not that he did not have faith in her, but rather, the way he could never sense her had put him at unease in that respect. And her firm belief in fate, destiny; of knowing the right path that the world must be pushed upon. Somewhere in his dragon memories he had a faith of sorts in that sort of thinking, but his Paragon side, in this world and this time of quiet uncertainty, believed that the actions of one could not count for so much. After all, Amber may have begun the launch of Paragon from the shores, but could she have done that without Brashen, without Althea, without Clef, even? Of course not. It was luck and circumstance that had allowed them all to come together in agreement. Pure chance that the Vestrit family had seen the whole enterprise through at all.

Paragon did not even think of Amber any more than the others. He was nervous but secretly thrilled at the thought of a new generation of dragons. Perhaps he would envy them their colour, and their flight upon true wings, but every moment of every hour of every day he could feel Brashen, his captain, and the unwavering pride in him. The way he could fly across the water like some wonderful serpent and dragon hybrid, the magnificance of his shape and build that put him beyond comparison to anything else. Brashen even believed Paragon was the most marvellous liveship of them all. And Paragon could believe that, because otherwise Brashen would not have been content with him. And yet somehow, even without a family connection to bridge them with blood, he still did.

Paragon's memories of Amber were not fading, or disappearing, they simply were moving to the back of his thoughts along with certain others of no immediate use to him. He looked to the dragons often in this waiting cocooning time for reassurance that all was right. Less and less did he, or anyone, remember Amber as instigator. No-one put thought to the reality that she had turned every cog in the machine, that she had picked the weakness in every wave they must overcome. Everyone took an equal part in their fates, because they were all involved, they were all present, and that was as it should be.

In a way, Amber knew what they were thinking. And she knew it was all as it must be. Even Amber herself had become but a shadow, a whisper, a facet of someone else. She was no longer an active person persuing her own life. Fortunately, the Fool thought to himself, many of Amber's core dreams and desires were his own also. And Lord Golden's too, even if as the Lord he did never show them. Everything was on the right path; dragons must fly again in the new world.

And soon, he would call upon his oldest, dearest friend once more, and the turning of the wheel would begin all over again.


End file.
